#getdown one last time in 2015!

DownStreetArt (DSA), a program of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ (MCLA) Berkshire Cultural Resource Center (BCRC), continues on Thursday, Sept. 24, with the final DownStreetArt Thursday of the 2015 season, from 6 to 9 p.m. The evening will include permanent and pop-up gallery receptions, performances and community events.

DownStreetArt welcomes all members of the community to visit local businesses, experience visual and performing arts in downtown North Adams, and to join us in a closing celebration of the 2015 DownStreetArt Season. All events are free and open to the public.

In addition to closing receptions and happenings in the galleries, four performances of Bridgman | Packer Dance’s “Truck” will be performed between 7 and 9 p.m. Seating is limited for each performance and reservations are strongly encouraged. Reservations can be made online at mcla.ticketleap.com

Bridgman | Packer Dance’s “Truck” encourages creative place making by bringing performance to nontraditional and unexpected locations. In “Truck,” a 17-foot box U-Haul truck is filled with live performance and video technology.

Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, co-artistic directors of Bridgman | Packer Dance and Guggenheim Fellows in choreography, are acclaimed for their innovative integration of choreography and video technology. They are also recipients of nine consecutive grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (2007 – 2015), two choreography fellowships from New York Foundation for the Arts, four National Performance Network Creation Fund awards, and grants from New England Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, and National Dance Project.

“Truck”culminates a season-long focus on community engagement, according to BCRC Program Coordinator Michelle Daly. “We are excited to bring an innovative piece of dance to the streets of downtown North Adams.”

“Truck”is presented with support from the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) Expeditions Grant, and will tour seven venues in five New England states.

Other one-night only performances include: Shira Lynn’s “Squirrel Lady,” music under the Mohawk marquee, and a video and performance curated by Torsten Zenus Burns at MCLA Gallery 51.

Shire Lynn will bring her character “Squirrel Lady” to the streets of downtown North Adams.

“She looks a bit like a displaced office worker or someone without an indoor home, human with squirrel-like rhythms and behaviors,” Lynn said of her character. “Squirrel Lady”examines of awareness of our environments we move through them, and of our own animal bodies. The performance invites the audience to consider the environmental and social justice ramifications of our layers of disconnect.

Performing under the Mohawk Marquee will be singer-songwriter Izzy Heltai, as well as a Housatonic-based, alternative indie band, 8 Foot River.

From 6:30 – 7:30 p.m., Sound and Tones recording artist Heltai will bring his modern folk music to Main Street.

From 7:30 – 9:00, 8 Foot River will perform. The band’s first full-length album, titled “Neighbors,” was released in November 2013. Their acoustic and electric instrumentation spans an eclectic range of all-original, hard-hitting rock and sweetly melodic indie pop.

At MCLA Gallery 51 at 51 Main St., Burns will present a special, one-night looped video program in conjunction with the current exhibition “Eat me alive so that I may see you from the inside.”

The program will include a selection of video, film, animation, and internet pieces that relate to the current show by artists, Burns, Maggie Nowinski, and Alicia Renadette. The three artists have also been collaborating on a new artist book that will be unveiled at the event.

This performance, screening and magazine launch will begin at 6 pm.

“Eat me alive so that I may see you from the inside”will remain on view at MCLA Gallery 51 through Oct. 25

Closing receptions will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. at DownStreetArt pop-up galleries C Gallery and Neck of the Woods.

At C Gallery, exhibitions by Julian Grey, Zac Pritchard and Chung Chak will be featured.

Grey’s exhibition “Persona” combines images from two recent series of self-portraits, “Voyeurisme” and “Curb Appeal.” In Voyeurisme, Grey utilizes black and white photography and film noir lighting to express themes of gender and sensuality from a non-binary subject.

In “Curb Appeal,” Grey’s richly colored self-portraits use the City of North Adams as a backdrop. Bringing her expressions of non-binary gender from the more intimate interior settings of Voyerisme to the streets, so to speak.

When viewed together, images from Voyerisme and Curb Appeal work in dialogue with one another, bringing the self as subject from intimate to public, says Daly.

Pritchard’s sculptural exhibition, “Oddities,” represent life-sized bodies and appendages. His work explores ideas of humor, loss, death, loneliness and attraction. Materials used are those that lend themselves easily to manipulation such as paper mache, plaster, paints and metals.

Chak will present six large-scale photomontages from his series, “Boxes.”

A closing reception for “Imagined Codes / Coded Images” will be held at the “Neck of the Woods Gallery.” Curated by Anthony Merino, the exhibition includes the work of four ceramic artists whose works align with the four tropes indentified by 20th century linguist Kenneth Burke.

Metaphors drive Alex Kraft’s fanciful narratives in which abstractions become characters. Sarah McNutt’s use of a single human as a representation of the human condition is classic synecdoche. Carly Costello’s link of fauna with humanity is a classic example of metonymy. Finally, Merino creates irony by using contronyms to illustrate the complexity of perception and reality.

Also at 87 Main St. will be a closing reception for “Community Hearts,” a group exhibition at curated by Commonfolk member Jessica Sweeney. “Community Hearts” showcases work that Common Folk created with other creative community groups in North Adams. It will feature work from The NAMAzing Initiative, ArtDoors, and Mass MoCA’s Teen Art Summit Participants as well as some individual projects that focus and highlight collaborative creativity.

PRESS Gallery, at 49 Main St., will highlight some of their favorite pieces created over the course of five years on Main Street. “Retrospective,” curated and coordinated by 2014 BHIP intern Nicole LeClair, will be PRESS’ last before it transitions to its new location in the recently renovated Bowman Hall. “Retrospective” will be on view through Oct. 25

On view at Ferrin Contemporary at Independent Art Projects, 1315 MASS MoCA Way is a solo exhibition by Roberto Lugo “Ghetto Garniture: Wu Tang Worcester,” on view through October 22

In this solo installation, Lugo explores eclecticism and culture by juxtaposing street graffiti, European decorative patterning, and rich symbolism drawn from his Puerto Rican heritage. He creates a hybrid of visual art traditions and stimulates new conversations around cultural tolerance. The show features Lugo’s work created during his artist residency at Project Art in Cummington. Lugo describes himself as a “potter, activist, culture-maker, rapper, poet and educator.”

Also at Independent Art Projects, Cynthia-Reeves presents work by Steven Siegel. Siegelis an American sculptor noted for his environmental artwork, particularly using recycled materials such as newspapers, aluminum cans, and plastic bottles. Siegel’s work will be on view through Nov. 1.

According to Allese Thomson Baker of Artforum 2011, as with most of Siegel’s work, an environmental critique is implicit. Materials like plastic and polyester are mixed with beads and yarn, bound into brilliantly colored bunches and laced into a chaotic harmony.

“Much like Jackson Pollock, who organized a shambolic mess of paint into symphonies of color and texture, Siegel commands the detritus of our culture into a frantic rhythm, nailing contemporary anxieties about the environment to the wall. Siegel may image our world out of rubbish, but the result is ravishing, glittering, and glistening in all its synthetic, inorganic wonder,” Baker said.

Continuing at the Berkshire Artist Museum, 159 East Main St., are group shows in their “Fresh Paint” and “Berkshire Classics” galleries. Also on view are selections from the permanent collection and the special exhibitions “That ‘70s Show” and “Then and Now.”

Other events include a screen printing mini-workshop at Maker’s Mill, 73 Main St., “ReVision” a participatory chalkboard project at 32-34 Eagle Street, and open studios with Jarvis Rockwell at 107 Main St. and Martha Flood Designs at 38 Eagle St.

ReVision, a participatory Chalkboard Art Project continues to elicit responses from the community. Responses are documented and shared via Facebook, and a blog created for this project atwww.revisionnorthadams.tumblr.com .

In Gallery 107 at 107 Main St., Jarvis Rockwell will once again be on hand to show his works-in-progress as he completes a second large wall-drawing of the year (his fourth for DownStreetArt).

Rockwell’s abstracted works incorporate paint, graphite, colored pencil, small figurines and other three-dimensional objects, all of which are elements typically found in his work.

The two works, created last year, remain on view in the concourse at 85 Main St.

Martha Flood, 38 Eagle St., designs and produces “The Woodlands Collection,” custom manufactured fabrics inspired by natural textures and patterns we encounter in the New England landscape. The nontraditional images are examples of cutting edge pattern design and advanced digital fabric printing technologies, and are the 2013 Yankee Magazine Best of New England Editor’s Choice Winner.

Temporary installations “FGBS” by Michael Champan, “Day and Night” by Meg Erlewine and Jade Hoyer, and “Liminal Chimes” by Pete Cormier also are on view.

DownStreetArt’s mission is to build economic and social capital and encourage the dialogue between our community and the arts.DownStreetArtdoes this by enlivening downtown North Adams using art and cultural activities to increase visitorship and enhance resident participation.